McFoodies loves food labelling

Welcome to McFoodies, home of food labelling projects – from calculation to compliance to training.

McFoodies is one of the leading consultants in the Aus-NZ region for food labelling, and is recommended widely by the industry.

Cathy McArdle’s reputation speaks for itself. Her knowledge and more than two decades of experience as a consultant is only one of the reasons why you should choose to go with the best.

Due to our relationship with Zubi and Zigloa, both of which are software platforms to simplify and speed up label calculation and compliance, McFoodies is the ideal food labelling consultancy for your business to partner with.

Zubi is the online calculator and food label creator that is trusted by food techs through NZ and Australia.

You confirm you’d like to purchase this McFoodies plan – we’ll send you an invoice to pay. Click the button in the pricing section to send the purchase confirmation.

You contact Cathy McArdle from McFoodies Ltd via phone (021 948 008) or email (cathy@mcfoodies.co.nz) anytime you need to ask food-labelling related questions. Although there may be written responses given, this plan does not include formal reporting via Zubi or Zigloa.

The “I have a recipe but no NIP” plan

If you are formulating a product in the kitchen and have the recipe sorted there’ll soon come a time you’ll need to calculate the compliance data for your label.

When you use this plan, McFoodies can take your recipe, load it into Zubi for calculation of your label and will also consider the product composition vs regulations along the way.

McFoodies uses the Zubi online software platform for all food label calculations. Zubi is great to use, is super flexible and is charged per finished product.

Cathy McArdle advises you if this process identifies any compliance issues for New Zealand or Australia, regarding the product’s composition.

Cathy McArdle advises you when the products are ready in Zubi, and in a state where only the Zubi fee needs to be paid to make the compliance data visible.

You log into Zubi and load a credit card so the products can be processed (calculated). If your credit card is already loaded, you give Cathy McArdle permission to use the credit card to pay the Zubi fees on your behalf.

Cathy McArdle does a final review of the labels/reports created by Zubi; downloads the Zubi PDFs and sends them to you. You could also access the labels/reports directly, via your Zubi account.

If you wish, you choose to continue to pay the ongoing, annual Zubi fees in order to maintain access to your products so you can make adjustments in future if needed. Alternatively, the products in Zubi can be obsoleted so they will not be charged and you can restart them at a later date.

The “Is my artwork ready to print” plan

Once you have your label compliance data and the graphic designer has done their magic you’ll need to review the artwork before you hit the scary print button.

This plan is for when you’d like McFoodies to review the labels so you can get on with the other important tasks in your business.

McFoodies uses the online software platform Zigloa for all label reviews. Zigloa helps to guide you through the regulations to avoid missing rules. It also creates a report describing the outcomes of the review plus it’s a database that stores reviews so they can be retrieved later.

You confirm you’d like to purchase this McFoodies plan – we’ll send you an invoice to pay. Click the button in pricing section to send the purchase confirmation.

You sign up for a Zigloa account [Choose the Zigloa Growth Plan, if your McFoodies plan is longer than 1 month]. Click the link in pricing section to sign up for Zigloa. If on a short-term McFoodies plan, Cathy McArdle will use her own Zigloa account for the project.

Cathy McArdle uses Zigloa to review your label artwork files, for compliance with applicable regulations in New Zealand and Australia.

Cathy McArdle sends you a Zigloa report for each product, detailing the changes needed to the artwork.

You arrange for the artwork to be updated (via a designer usually), based on feedback from the Zigloa review performed by Cathy McArdle.

Once the artwork has been adjusted to make it correct, Cathy McArdle “approves” the label artwork in Zigloa. Beware, it may take more than one round of label adjustments to get to this point, but this has no extra cost.

Cathy McArdle sends you the approved Zigloa label review report for each product to indicate the label is ready for printing. You could also access the report(s) yourself if you have their own Zigloa account.

Cathy McArdle gives you unlimited advice on food labelling compliance during the McFoodies plan period, in relation to any products (not just the ones being reviewed). This advice is via phone and email but will not involve formal reporting via Zigloa.

If you wish, you can choose to continue to pay the ongoing, quarterly or annual Zigloa fees in order to utilise the platform to carry out your own label reviews in future. Alternatively, you can put the Zigloa plan on hold and restart it at a later date.

The “I’m creating labels from scratch” plan

When building labels from scratch you’ll be aiming to get the detail – we call it label copy – correct before it goes to the designer. Then once that is sorted you’ll need to ensure the artwork only has the bits that are compliant, for that final crucial phase before printing.

If your business does not have in-house regulatory expertise, this plan allows you to access that input from McFoodies, on an as-needed basis.

McFoodies uses the online platform Zigloa for all label copy checking and artwork reviews. Zigloa helps to guide you through the regulations to avoid missing rules. It also creates a report describing the outcomes of the check/review; plus it’s a database that stores reports so they can be retrieved later. For label copy checking Zigloa has the extra benefit of allowing sign-off from multiple (named) team members.

You confirm you’d like to purchase this McFoodies plan – we’ll send you an invoice to pay. Click the button in pricing section to send the purchase confirmation.

You sign up for a Zigloa account [Choose the Zigloa Workz Plan, if your McFoodies plan is longer than 1 month]. Click the link in pricing section to sign up for Zigloa. If on a short-term plan, Cathy McArdle will use her own Zigloa account.

You log into Zigloa to load the suggested data for label copy for each product. This detail usually comes from the marketing team, or the manufacturer if imported product. You could also ask suppliers to log into Zigloa to add or view label copy and make comments for each product, within the Zigloa system.

You advise Cathy McArdle when the draft label copy is ready for checking.

Cathy McArdle logs into your Zigloa account to check draft label copy vs New Zealand and Australian regulations, to make changes or comments about how to make the label copy compliant.

You and Cathy McArdle agree (via discussions on email or phone, or comments within in Zigloa) on final detail for the label copy for each product.

Cathy McArdle “approves” the label copy within Zigloa.

You arrange for the draft artwork files to be created (via a designer usually) and send them to Cathy McArdle.

Once the artwork has been adjusted to make it correct, Cathy McArdle “approves” the label artwork in Zigloa. Beware, it may take more than one round of label adjustments to get to this point, but this has no extra cost. Also note, this process does NOT involve direct markup of the artwork files, it’s the designer that makes these changes. Zigloa is for capturing changes needed to artwork vs agreed label copy.

Cathy McArdle sends you the approved Zigloa label review report for each product to indicate the label is ready for printing. You could also access the report(s) using your Zigloa account.

Cathy McArdle gives you unlimited advice on food labelling compliance during the McFoodies plan period, in relation to any products (not just the ones being checked/reviewed). This advice is via phone and email but will not involve formal reporting via Zigloa.

If you wish, you can choose to continue to pay the ongoing, quarterly or annual Zigloa fees in order to utilise the platform to carry out your own label copy checks and label reviews in future. Alternatively, you can put the plan on hold and restart it at a later date.